Verstappen was “over the limit” with Norris but others would do same

Charles Leclerc agreed Max Verstappen went too far in his fight with Lando Norris in last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix.

However the Ferrari driver believes others would do the same if they were in Verstappen’s situation.

Verstappen was given two 10-second time penalties for his incident with Norris. In the second, at turn seven, Verstappen dived down the inside of the McLaren, failed to make the corner and forced Norris off the track with him. Leclerc said this was a clear violation.

“The second move on Lando, I think this is over the limit,” he said. However, Leclerc added, “I also think that whoever in his position might just do the same, because we are fighting for a world title and I think it would be very false to say that drivers will do something different today.”

Leclerc believes Verstappen is doing what he can to limit Norris’ opportunity to score points.

“He feels that the car that he has is not as good as the beginning of the season,” he said. “He feels that McLaren probably [has] really good momentum at the moment and they are all fighting for the drivers’ title.

“So it’s hard. Sometimes he will go over the limit, like he did in Mexico. But again, they are fighting for a world title. So in my opinion it’s understandable.

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“Then it’s up to the FIA to control that and obviously put limits to what is possible or not. And on that we are trying to work to make it the best possible.”

Hamilton says Verstappen is repeating his 2021 tactics

Lewis Hamilton, who fought Verstappen for the world championship in 2021, sees similarities between the two situations. “All you have to do is just go and look back and listen to some of my radio comments back in the day,” he said. “It’s not really something I really want to tap into.

“It’s nothing to do with me at the moment. Obviously, if I was in the battle, I could lean in more into it, but these are the things you have to ask those two because they’re the ones that it’s affecting. But I don’t think you’re seeing much difference across the years from 2021 to now. It’s pretty much the same.”

Although Verstappen made it clear today the penalties he received will not affect his approach to racing this weekend, Carlos Sainz Jnr believes he will have taken note of them.

“It’s unsurprising in a way, because he’s fighting for a lot and he knows he’s trailing in terms of performance and he’s doing everything he can to minimise his points loss,” said Sainz. “At the same time, I think those double 10-seconds penalty, it was also a message from the stewards to say ‘we’re monitoring what you’re doing and we want to keep the sportsmanship and the title fight fair’.

“And I think he understood that message and he knows that you cannot go too far in this sport because in the end, you can pay the price.

“I really wish they have a good title fight, a fight that will be always remembered in a fair way and they can put on a good show.”

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